Sonic the Hedgehog

• Release Date: 1991
• Genre: Action
• Style: Side-Scrolling Platform
• Similar Games: Super Mario Land (Game Boy), Disney's Aladdin (Sega Game Gear)

Game Description

The evil Dr. Robotnik is back, and this time in a portable format. Sonic the Hedgehog for the Game Gear is a portable adaptation of the Genesis side-scrolling platform series starring Sega's hedgehog mascot. As in the 16-bit original, Sonic must find and defeat Dr. Robotnik so that he can free his animal friends.

Sonic can run, jump, or roll his way through stages. While jumping, Sonic curls up into a ball and can attack the various robotic creatures; alternatively blasting on the ground with a curled up and rolling Sonic can also dispatch enemies. If enemies touch Sonic while he isn't curled up, they can damage him. Sonic can find and collect gold rings, however, which allows him to survive the touch -- but at the cost of losing all his rings. Without any rings, Sonic dies when enemies attack him.

Players must guide Sonic through stages filled with hazards like moving or collapsing platforms, spikes, water, or giant springs. To help him in his quest to defeat the evil Dr. Robotnik, Sonic can find and collect a variety of items. Besides acting as an insurance policy against death, gold rings can earn players extra lives (100 rings) or allow them to advance to bonus stages (having at least 50 rings at the end of the level). There are also other items like shields that absorb one hit, temporary invincibility power-ups, red sneakers for extra speed, or even bonus Sonics!

Roots & Influences

Sonic the Hedgehog for the Game Gear is a handheld port of the popular Genesis game, which was Sega's faster, edgier answer to Nintendo's Mario franchise.

Review: Overall

The world's most famous hedgehog has appeared on every Sega platform since his introduction, and the Game Gear's first Sonic the Hedgehog is a pretty good attempt at bringing Sonic to a portable. It manages to retain the series' distinctive gameplay while working around the limitations of the hardware.

The graphics are bright and colorful, and do a good job of hiding how bland the backgrounds are. Most of the supporting cast are decently detailed, but Sonic himself has a high level of detail. If he stands still without doing anything, he'll turn to look at you with distinct facial expressions. Most of the effort, however, has gone into recreating the frenetic, almost reckless, sense of speed that the Sonic series is about. Even on the Game Gear, with its small screen and limited processing power, you really do get a sense of just how fast Sonic is moving. Even when he isn't running around like a mad hedgehog, the camera angle constantly moves to keep up with his motions, giving everything a sense of fluid speed.

The quality and composition of the game's music is easily on par with those of the Genesis Sonic games. Each note is played clearly and distinctly, and the songs have a cheerful, slightly speedy tone to them that complement the gameplay and Sonic's style. The series' characteristic jumping, stopping and enemy-destroying sound effects are played in high quality samples. If you listen to the game through headphones without knowing the source, you would be hard pressed to distinguish it from the Genesis' Sonic soundtrack.

Sonic's classic gameplay is fully captured and realized, as well. You can try to blast through levels at dizzying speeds, or take it more slowly and explore. From the easy first stage, the difficulty curve gradually goes up. But the game never gets challenging enough that it becomes frustrating. The controls are very responsive, and both enemy placement and level designs show a lot of forethought.

Sonic the Hedgehog games are an integral part of every platform gamer's library, and the Game Gear version fares just as well. No gamer should pass up the chance to experience the speed of Sonic on a portable, and even gamers who don't normally play platform games may be charmed by the hedgehog' style.

Review: Enjoyment

The game manages to bring great platform action to the Game Gear and even captures Sonic's high-speed pacing.

Review: Graphics

Bright, clean graphics that work well with the Game Gear screen.

Review: Sound

Fantastic musical tracks that match up evenly with those on console Sonic games.

Review: Replay Value

You can play trying to collect everything, blast through in as little time as possible or get to the bonus levels.

Review: Documentation

Decent documentation.

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